Bay area youth groups support alternatives to the CA High School Exit Exam, but the Governator vetoes them on Oct. 7, 2005

I bumped into my friend Tiny of Poor News Network/KPFA [94.1FM] at the 10/16/05 Poor People's March and Community Congress which was organized by an alliance of mass-based grassroots organizations and the Living Wage Coalition in SF. The SF people's 'community congress' was inspiring and powerful. Click here for more on the event from beyondchron.com.

The previous week Tiny covered the important work of Oakland Bay Area's grassroots youth groups -

• the new la Fuerza Unida [not the San Antonio grassroots group which took on Levis Corporation in the Pre-NAFTA period of struggle against Globalization and plant closures] and
• Youth Together [an amazing multiracial organization fighting for youth self-determination with the help of seasoned organizers like Raquel Jimenez and others].

Both organizations along with Californians for Justice, LA's Coalition for Educational Jusitice, SF's Teachers for Social Justice and many others have been urging support for CA state educational justice legislation -

• AB1531, which would have allowed school districts to develop alternatives to the mandatory high school exit exam that California students have to pass before they graduate and receive their diploma, and
• SB385, which focuses on allowing English learner students to take the high school exit exam in the student's first language.

Both bills were vetoed by the "increasingly right wing leaning Govenator" on Friday Oct 7th.
In response to the veto, Assembly Member Karen Bass, (D. Los Angeles) who authored 1531 said, "I am disappointed that the Governor can't see the residual effect of mass failure of students whose schools do not have adequate resources."

Click here for Tiny's full article on the organizing and the event

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For more on educational justice and other racial equity legislation in California - check out the Oakland-based Applied Research Center's legislation page